Team Blitz India
LONDON: Over 1,000 refugees fleeing regions of conflict and instability like Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc. have been welcomed under one of the United Kingdom’s safe and legal routes by local communities across the island country, according to a Home Office statement.
Since 2015 the Government has offered a range of safe and legal routes to the UK to over half a million men, women and children seeking safety, it added.
This includes the community sponsorship scheme which allows members of the public to support the most vulnerable refugees who have been assessed as in need of resettlement.
State burden cut
“Community sponsorship reduces the burden on the state, offers the best prospect of integration and bypasses the smuggling gangs to focus our finite resources on the most vulnerable,” stated Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick. So far, refugees have been supported with housing and integration assistance by over 200 community groups, including charities, faith groups, sports clubs, schools, and universities.
The UK is among 10 countries operating a community sponsorship scheme through which the UNHCR refers vulnerable refugees. “This scheme has gifted my family and me the dignified life we’ve dreamt of for so long. Owing to the love and support that the group has given me; I’ve found success in my profession and launched my own business,” the release quoted Abdulrahman Zakaria, who was resettled in Warwick with his family last year under the community sponsorship scheme.
Finest care, backing
“Today, we genuinely feel an integral part of the community here in Warwickshire. We’ve received the finest care and backing, and mere words of gratitude hardly do justice to how thankful I am,” Zakaria said.
Set up in 2016, community sponsorship was the first scheme in the UK to enable the public to come together and support refugees directly, so they feel welcome and can readjust to a new life here. Community groups are asked to raise £9,000 to support families with their resettlement and integration needs, therefore helping to keep costs down for UK taxpayers.
